Warren Wilson Theatre launches “Not Suitable For Children” season

SO MUCH DRAMA: "Nan Carter is fed up with her life and the spirit-crushing abuse of her drunken husband, Kyle," says a press release for Warren Wilson College's production of Exit, Pursued by a Bear. "After a chance encounter sparks an unlikely friendship with a Shakespearean actress-turned-stripper, Nan finds the strength to take charge of her future and leave Kyle, but not before teaching him a lesson he’ll never forget." Photo courtesy of the Warren Wilson Theatre Department

There’s a wealth of cutting-edge theater in Western North Carolina, but some of the most daring work to be seen on stage is on the campuses of local colleges. The Warren Wilson College Theater Department, under the guidance of Candace Taylor, is about to launch a new season under the heading, Not Suitable For Children. NO PLACE LIKE HOMEWOOD: UNC Asheville's drama department launches its theater season in the local landmark.

UNC Asheville launches fall theater season at Homewood

It’s hard not to pass by Homewood — the stone castlelike building in Montford — and not dream up elaborate parties, dances and dinners that would be perfect in that storied atmosphere. And why not? Homewood was constructed in 1927 as the home of Dr. Robert Carole, who founded Highland Hospital. Bela Bartok gave private concerts there, F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald attended parties, and Nina Simone studied piano within Homewood’s walls.

Fittingly, UNC Asheville’s drama department is staging its season opener, the 1935-set play, Fefu and Her Friends, at Homewood. Performances take place Thursday and Friday, Oct. 8 and 9, and Wednesday to Friday, Oct. 14-16.

The script is by Cuban-American playwright Maria-Irene Fornes, who came to the U.S. in 1945. She was, according to a press release, “a leading figure in New York City’s off-off-Broadway movement of the 1960s.” Fefu and Her Friends is the story of “eight intelligent, witty and frustrated women who are attempting to navigate life in a male-dominated world.”

During the show’s middle section, the audience will move in groups throughout Homewood to take in various parts of the drama. The staging is one of main reasons that Scott Walters, the show’s director and UNCA professor of drama, chose this particular production. Of the small scenes that play out in different rooms, glimpsed by different groups, Walters says, “It’s like a close-up in a movie and totally changes the relationship between the audience and the characters.”

Fefu and Her Friends features Casey Clennon, Emily Crock, Rosemary Fischer, Maggie Kennedy, Joan Owens, Riley Schatz, Virginia Shafer and Grace Siplon. Shows are at 7:30 p.m., and latecomers will not be seated. UNCA will provide a shuttle from Belk Theater on the university campus. Tickets are $12 general/$10 seniors/$7 students. drama.unca.edu — Alli Marshall

“We gave our season a theme a few years ago and choose shows that fit within that theme,” says Taylor, who is entering her sixth year as department chair. “It worked out well, so we thought we would do it again. All of our plays this year are contemporary plays written by up-and-coming playwrights or very hot playwrights.”

The season kicks off Thursday, Oct. 8, with Lauren Gunderson’s Exit, Pursued By a Bear. The title takes its name from the peculiar line of direction written by Shakespeare in The Winter’s Tale (which was produced last year as a collaboration between Warren Wilson and the Montford Park Players). No other information was provided by The Bard, leaving the interpretation up to generations of directors’ imaginations. Gunderson’s play is a comedic take on a not-so-funny tale about the horrors of domestic violence, where the wife has duct-taped her abusive husband to a chair. She plans to act out all of his transgressions in front of him with the help of a local stripper and a gay friend.

“Crisis. Catharsis. Comedy.” That is the tag line for Warren Wilson’s season, and those three C’s are certainly on display in the catalog. Recent Broadway sensation The Motherf**ker With The Hat, by Stephen Aldy Guirgis, is on the list. Comedian Chris Rock made the show famous, partly for the attention-grabbing title on Broadway, but mainly for the fast-paced, foul-mouthed comedy about drugs and violence in the inner city.

The second semester of shows features the play Marisol, a tale of a young Puerto Rican woman who wakes to find a war among the angels in heaven has spilled over to the streets of her Bronx neighborhood. Humanity’s future hangs in the balance. Playwright Jose Rivera is from Puerto Rico and won numerous awards when the play was first produced in the mid-1990s.

Pulitzer Prize winner David Lindsay-Abaire rounds out the offerings. His play, Fuddy Mears, humorously tackles the subject of a woman with amnesia who finds herself taken hostage by a man who claims to be her husband. The title comes from the slurred speech of a character who has suffered a stroke and is trying to say “funny mirrors.” It will close out the season in April.

“In the past, we’ve done shows with an eye toward the age range of our audience, and we try to make sure to say whether this is suitable for children or not,” says Taylor. For this season, “we decided to do the whole ‘not suitable for children’ thing.” But young audiences and their parents shouldn’t despair. Taylor says her plan, going forward, is to include a children’s show each year.

“We’re doing more plays than we typically do in a season,” she says. “We usually do three plays, and this year we’re doing, basically, a play every eight weeks.”

That’s good news for the college’s up-and-coming theater professionals. “We can offer more opportunities to more students,” says Taylor. So, she jokes, “we’re going to see if we survive this.”

About Jeff Messer

playwright, actor, director and producer, Jeff Messer has been most recently known as a popular radio talk show host. He has been a part of the WNC theatre scene for over 25 years, and actively works with and supports most of the theatres throughout the region. Follow me @jeffdouglasmess

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